Monday, January 24, 2011

GEORGIA LABOR COMMISSIONER ASKS FOR E-VERIFY FUNDING

Georgia’s new labor commissioner, Mark Butler, is asking for federal funding to investigate whether government agencies and contractors here are complying with state laws regarding hiring undocumented workers. He sent his request to the U.S. Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked his office what it was doing to comply with a state law that requires him to seek the money.Commissioner Butler proposes to start by doing at least 100 random audits and post the results on www.open.georgia.gov. He estimated those audits could cost $350,000 for the first year and $105,890 for each subsequent year.Last year the Georgia legislators passed a law that calls for these audits to check whether government employers and contractors are using the E-Verify system that they are supposed to be using by law to ensure the legality of newly hired workers. The problem with the E-Verify system is that it is filled with errors and very burdensome for businesses to comply.Another waste of taxpayers' dollars.